Devanagari
नित्यं ददाति कामस्यच्छिद्रं तमनु येऽरय: ।
योगिन: कृतमैत्रस्य पत्युर्जायेव पुंश्चली ॥ ४ ॥
Verse text
nityaṁ dadāti kāmasya
cchidraṁ tam anu ye ’rayaḥ
yoginaḥ kṛta-maitrasya
patyur jāyeva puṁścalī
Synonyms
nityam
—
always
;
dadāti
—
gives
;
kāmasya
—
of lust
;
chidram
—
facility
;
tam
—
that (lust)
;
anu
—
following
;
ye
—
those
;
arayaḥ
—
enemies
;
yoginaḥ
—
of the yogīs or persons trying to advance in spiritual life
;
kṛta
—
maitrasya — having put faith in the mind
;
patyuḥ
—
of the husband
;
jāyā iva
—
like the wife
;
puṁścalī
—
who is unchaste or easily carried away by other men .
Translation
An unchaste woman is very easily carried away by paramours, and it sometimes happens that her husband is violently killed by her paramours. If the yogī gives his mind a chance and does not restrain it, his mind will give facility to enemies like lust, anger and greed, and they will doubtlessly kill the yogī.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The mind of the yogī who trusts it gives opportunity to lust and its followers anger and greed, just as the trusting husband’s loose wife gives opportunity to her lover.
The cause is explained. The mind of the trusting yogī gives an opportunity to lust and its followers, anger and greed, which are enemies. Just as the prostitute, trusted by her husband, gives opportunity to her lover, and has her husband killed, the mind makes the yogī fall from his position by lust and other desires.
Purport
In this verse the word
puṁścalī
refers to a woman who is easily carried away by men. Such a woman is never to be trusted. Unfortunately, in the present age, women are never controlled. According to the directions of the
śāstras,
women are never to be given freedom. When a child, a woman must be strictly controlled by her father. When she is young, she must be strictly controlled by her husband, and when she is old, she must be controlled by her elderly sons. If she is given independence and allowed to mingle unrestrictedly with men, she will be spoiled. A spoiled woman, being manipulated by paramours, might even kill her husband. This example is given here because a
yogī
desiring to get free from material conditions must always keep his mind under control. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to say that in the morning our first business should be to beat the mind with shoes a hundred times, and, before going to bed, to beat the mind a hundred times with a broomstick. In this way one’s mind can be kept under control. An uncontrolled mind and an unchaste wife are the same. An unchaste wife can kill her husband at any time, and an uncontrolled mind, followed by lust, anger, greed, madness, envy and illusion, can certainly kill the
yogī.
When the
yogī
is controlled by the mind, he falls down into the material condition. One should be very careful of the mind, just as a husband should be careful of an unchaste wife.